Simviation Forums

and that is spend $3000 to make this fsx video game sit up and beg...i'm sticking with fs9 and will peak at fsx once in awhile, maybe to enjoy looking at the water....i'm sticking with my pent.4...3gh and will buy a video card to accomodate this for now....looking at the gforce 7950..512mb or would a 8800gtx or the cheaper version make a big difference? .....i'll maybe upgrade the cpu etc. in a year if i'm still kickin.....thanks....

Well, if you buy an 8800 GTX, that P4 is going to limit the performance of that card greatly, and maybe bottleneck the 7950 too (not as much though).  You dont need to spend $3000 to make FSX run well, i spent $1700 CDN and I can run FSX fine without a DX10 card (eventually I will get one).

thats good info....thanks...is there a card which would be compatable with my humble p4...had a 6600, but it burnt up....didn't get great frame rates with that either. but if there isn't a card which would enhance my system, i may have to find a way to upgrade?

ATi Radeon X1950XT. Thats all you need, any more than that and your CPU will start to limit the card. Then you cross into overclocking.

Cheers
Cameron

thanks...thats all i needed to know...it'll keep my big nose above water

Buy windows vista and it should work a whole lot better, mines coming soon so I'll let you know.

http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.p ... =SW-036-MS

Plus this card is so cheap and vista ready as it supports aero.

http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.p ... =GX-137-SP

Do not get basic vista edition because it wont support the card effects and it's crap.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/e ... fault.mspx

The card you haved linked there is AGP.  I think we are looking for PCI-E.

yancovitch,

Go download a tool called CPU-Z http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpu-z-138.zip Open it, and click the Motherboard tab. Look at what it says for "Graphics interface" Tell us what it says. There will be three options.

1: PCI-Express x16 (the best)
2: AGP (its old and a bit expensive, but it will do the job)
3: PCI (No express, just PCI, if this is the case, you are screwed, and need a new motherboard for a good card)

Cheers
Cameron

[quote]yancovitch,


3: PCI (No express, just PCI, if this is the case, you are screwed, and need a new motherboard for a good card)

[\quote]

nice and to the point on that one

if he had a 6600 it will be AGP or PCI-E because i think 6200 is the only PCI card available.

what are your current specs yankovitch?
just curious?

intel p4 530 3.0ghx
asus p5gd1 vm motherboard
2gig pc3200 ddr400 ram
160gb 7200 hd
geforce 7100gs card....very poor
antec sonata case
recently purchased windows xp (as i didn't have a legal version) with the hope to upgrade it to visa later...i would like to upgrade step by step, the video card being the most needed...hope not to have to discard anything and waste bucks in the process....i could never even run fs9 well....b.....u.....t, if i really have to rebuild, i'll just have to do it....ctjoyce.....are you really sixteenish...i'm truly amazed at these young whippersnappers...like, what do i need..what must i change to be able to use with what i need..................goal...full autogen and water

Okay, good news is that you have a PCI-E x16 slot. So your options are limited by only your budget. If you like I can suggest you a parts list for a new very fast computer that will run FS9 maxed out with 45+ FPS, and even get you maxed out in FSX with 20ish FPS, and the best part is it will only cost you about $1500 (about half of what you thought).

If you had to upgrade only one thing in your tower right now, I would suggest it be a nVidia 7950GT then overclock that Prescott to about 3.8 or 9 Ghz.


And yes, I'm only 16. Will be turning 17 in April.

Cheers
Cameron

wow..i'm just turning sixty six....look at you now...will be something to see you at sixty six.....

I don't know why you linked him to a 32-bit version of Vista , whats the point of that as more and more things are being written for 64 bit computing ? :-/

cameron.....i chickened out regarding a higher end system and took your suggestion and got the 7950gt...will check in about overclocking later...thanks, vic